I Don’t Understand Climate Change Deniers

8042010

You can watch this first to get a taste of the source of my confusion.

So help me out here, why is it that so many people are flagrantly misrepresenting the facts and denying the massive corroborative evidence that global climate change is not just happening but is largely caused by recent human activity?

This isn’t some trivial or subjective academic argument about some arcane aspect of philosophy, this is about the very future of the human species. Sure the uneducated and simpleminded in the population will be easily misled by their favorite teevee station. You know, the one that pretends that the world is actually very simple, everything is black and white, and if you’re watching us then YOU are the smart one…And did I mention very pretty. Hey look, Walmart has NASCAR branded Snuggies!!

Now I’m a pretty cynical guy but even I have a hard time believing that the coal and oil industries (being the most likely beneficiaries of such misrepresentations) could possibly have such an overwhelming disregard for the environment and the future of the human race. Why dismiss the objective science when they could instead work to advance it and even work towards better solutions that could save their industries and the planet for future generations?

At the end of the day isn’t this supposed to be about the survival of our children and grandchildren? Has the incessant capitalist drive for quarterly profits completely obscured our ability to see the devastating long term folly of such blind pursuits of greed and avarice? Am I that naive and cynically deficient?

I simply cannot comprehend how so many people watch the Bill O’Reillys and the Rush Limbaughs for reasons other than freak-show pity, but instead take them seriously. So while some of us (and many more scientists) are trying to figure out what the actual problems are and how we might fix them the pig people turn up Glen Beck’s radio program to make jello salad of their brains, eat another Big Mac, and pump the liquefied corpses of their children into their gas tanks for one last bender to Vegas before Jesus himself comes to clean up the mess they’ve made.

Information

6 responses

8042010

B(18:47:35) :

As one lady that I work with said, ‘look at all the snow everywhere this winter, how can there be global warming?’ Yes, she was serious and no, it is not worth the effort to try and explain anything to a woman who also believes in a fairy ‘god’father that is going to rapture her. :P

…And to follow up my previous comments, I find myself compelled to reply with a resounding “YES!” to your question, “Has the incessant capitalist drive for quarterly profits completely obscured our ability to see the devastating long term folly of such blind pursuits of greed and avarice?” Greed is the force behind it all. Much like the health insurance industry’s goading of the Tea Party masses in order to maintain its financial control over health care in the USA, the oil and coal industries will stop at nothing in their pursuit of ultimate wealth. The ignorant, the faithful, and the right wingers are easy targets for mind control by big corporations with an agenda.

I also agree with Tabbie, those that “believe” think that they will be magically whisked away before they need to care and those smart enough to realize enjoy their luxurious way of life far too much to care at what expense it comes. I myself do what I can to educate others and live responsibly, but I relax in the hope that the human race will forge ahead, like cockroaches, and adapt. Maybe future generations will ooze a mucus like sunscreen from the pores in their skin and learn to survive eating cactus flesh; or maybe a couple hundred million years from now our happy asses will be right next to the dinosaur exhibit in a museum.

I think humans give themselves waaaaay too much credit. We are consuming this planets resources at a frightening pace, while the population continues to soar. It’s just not sustainable. In addition, we have nowhere to go. Even getting to our closest neighbor planet(Mars) is a massive & daunting challenge. And even if we did, there’s nothing there for us or any realistic way to live. In all reality, we’re stuck here. Imo, we will not survive another 10,000 years. And in another million, the world will be erased of any evidence we ever existed. Apparently, for billions, the truth hurts.

Of course you’re probably right about us in 10,000 years but it’s not like you or I will be around to collect on that bet. I just wish people would get their collective heads out of the sand so we can work together to keep this planet inhabitable for even just another 100 years so our grandchildren will have an opportunity to clean up the mess we’re leaving them.